given the value free-to-air TV provides to the teams. Sky'll struggle to provide much better coverage than the BBC already do; it's not like in '97 or 2008 where things needed a massive shake up. Bernie's on the way to shooting himself in the foot is part-pay TV is his new strategy, as the teams'll demand a bigger share to make up for the reduced value of sponsorship.

In Spain when they broadcast adverts during F1 they reduce the race so it fits in a quarter of the screen in the top right hand corner and the ads run a quarter of the screen on the bottom left hand corner.Nothing is missed and ads are still broadcasts.

That said I ain't getting SKY - I'm sure the internet will provide the solution.

but i suppose it will mean more pubs will start showing f1. i actually had to watch the british gp in a pub due to technical difficulties (ie no tv) and it was surprisingly good on the big screen. won't work for the more obscure time zones tho i guess...

Okay, two/three years ago my attitude would've been very different probably. But honestly, I do still care about F1, just it annoys me more than it gives me pleasure, so I can take this as a good opportunity to stay away. If anything, I think I'm more pissed off by this arrangement than if they just scrapped it all together. It seems like an attempt at placating everyone that's instead just going to piss of everyone.

And yet another way in which MotoGP >>>>>>>>>> F1. I pay about £85 a year for MotoGP.com access, which not only gives me all the sessions live (or whenever you want them), but highlights of every race in every category from 1992, and full coverage of all races since 2002.

that the BBC have highlights of those races that they're not showing live. Hope they give them a bit longer than the hour they get on BBC3 these days though, that doesn't quite seem to do them justice.

Formula 1 are way behind the curve when it comes to their internet prescence, as PocketMouse implies up above. If the BBC are still able to stream their events live, that suggests Sky'll have exclusive rights to stream the other half on Sky Go.

However, that's not to say that this is a big loss for the sport and the BBC. It's also not really that big a gain for Sky Sports either, surely; they don't even acknowledge the existence of F1 on their channels right now, it's only tennis/cricket/football/boxing.

i dont follow the f1 closely enough to care, but i did watch some races on the bbc because they were on the bbc. fuck that - i have decided not to get sky before this, and just pay for NHL and NFL directly. this won't change.